Ankara, Feb 11 : Turkey’s move to normalise ties with Israel would not mean a change in Ankara’s Palestinian policy, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said.
“Normalising our relations with Israel does not mean giving up our basic positions on the Jerusalem cause, the Palestinian cause, and the Masjid al-Aqsa (Al-Aqsa mosque).We will not normalise our relations at the expense of the Palestinian cause,” Cavusoglu added on Thursday when speaking to state-run TRT Haber broadcaster.
Turkey started a fresh dialogue with Israel after the latter formed a new government in June 2021, Cavusoglu told TRT Haber, noting his Israeli counterpart “also believes in a two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Turkey would contribute to the two-state solution “as it did in the past by having contact with both sides,” he said.
Turkey’s relations with Israel have deteriorated since Israel’s deadly assault on a Turkish-led aid flotilla in 2010, Xinhua news agency reported.
Reconciliation attempts did not yield a full recovery of ties between the two countries because Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause.
In a more recent spat in 2018 when the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem, Turkey expelled the Israeli Ambassador from Ankara.
The two countries have been working on a rapprochement in recent months, with Erdogan holding phone talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
int/khz/
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